November 20, 2007

A good WinM@il customer who oversees the operations of a variety of dining establishments created a holiday email coupon for the subscribers of one restaurant's email program. That right there is a good idea.

And going one step further, in an effort to share that good news, they sent a promotional email to a nearby property's subscribers encouraging them to sign up for the first restaurant's email program.

This kind of cross marketing works. It makes more sense, costs less, and drives more business in the door than purchasing a random list of who-knows-who.

Other creative list building strategies include:

1-When speaking with a radio or television reporter, remember to ask listeners to go to your web site for more info and say the address.

November 16, 2007

I don't know exactly when it happened, but the midwest regional retailer Younkers - owned by Saks Incorporated - has finally created an email that works!

The shift to more effective design includes:

more links to choose from

more visual motivation to click those links

and greater access directly to parts of their web site that interest me.

Now, on the the next step: Personalization! Perhaps they already have this in the works, but ideally Younkers would send me something more directed to my buying habits. So many campaigns like this one are created with a one-size-fits-all mentality. This is surprising - especially for the larger companies spending huge dollars on advertising - that marketing can't figure out the simple task of targeting via email. This strategy is so available and so affordable that I am baffled it is not more often utilized.